Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 41 years to Stan. No children. We have 1 Italian Greyhound named Capodimonte and 2 calico cats named Capt. Fishipants (a rare MALE calico) and Daphne Doolittle. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 10 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog, not a business. I share what interests me I am not selling or making a profit.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Does your laundry area look anything like this one? If you were honest, you might have to admit that it really does look like this or, somewhat like this. This is not acceptable. It's not functional, efficient or pleasant. (In this case, with all those pipes and wires, it may not be safe either!)

I did a Google image search and found some great laundry room ideas.

I've had to live with a laundry "closet" and a laundry "room" and I vote for a laundry "room" over a closet! But there are pros and cons...

Laundry Room Pros
You have room to fold laundry and store your supplies
You have a sink to wash a small dog in, or your delicates in.
You have room for an ironing board
You have room for more organization such as separate laundry baskets for everyone in the house, separate hampers for whites/darks/delicates, etc.

Laundry Room Cons
A room means it is usually not as conveniently located as a laundry closet. It may be off the garage, in the basement or near the kitchen and this is not close to the bedroom and baths where you need it. That means hauling clothes baskets.
It's much too easy to ignore piles of clothes if they are shut off in a room and not demanding your attention
Laundry creates a lot of dust and you have to clean a whole room instead of just a closet

Because clothes are made of fibers, as they wear they create lint and dust. So your laundry room is going to be one of the dustiest places in the house. You want your laundry room to be pleasant, functional, efficient and easy to clean. So with those objectives in mind, here are laundry rooms that I found. I tried to pick a good variety from small to large, cheap to expensive. Look for ideas that you can use in your own laundry setup.

This room is organized and pleasantly decorated. She evidently has to use her laundry room for some extra storage and she did a good job with the baskets. The only down side is all the dust. Those baskets won't keep the contents from getting dusty and there is a lot to clean around in this laundry room. If I have a choice of open shelving and cabinets/drawers, I would take the cabinets/drawers. It keeps clutter behind closed doors and keeps dust off the contents. And cleaning is just wiping the cabinet doors.

This is such a cheery laundry room and I like how she is organized. The top shelf would be a pistol to dust but at least it's just that shelf.

For large families having more than one washer/dryer is a good idea! This laundry room is one of my favorites!

I really like this one too. The stainless steel and frosted glass is very modern.

This is a very quaint laundry room. It would really match an older home. The old sink and old table make it.

It's a good idea to have a treadmill (with a flat screen TV to boot!) in the laundry room. You can do some exercise while you wait for the loads to be ready for folding.

This large country laundry room is beautiful!

This French Country look is attractive. I like that drying rack.

I really like having a TV in the laundry room for those times when you have loads to fold and iron.

Putting cabinet doors in front of the washer/dryer is one way to hide the washer/dryer but they do get in the way.

You wouldn't dread going to the basement to do laundry if your laundry area looked as nice as these do.

If you can't afford cabinets, maybe you can hide clutter with curtains like this woman did.

Using this old dollhouse for shelving was a good idea!

This colorful laundry room should keep you in a good mood while you do your laundry. I love the turquoise blue glass tiles on the wall.

The slatted shelves are good for air flow if you use them for drying sweaters.

This is an organized back porch laundry room. Notice her matching round hatboxes on the shelves over the door on the right. Also the hanging rack by the door.

This looks like it's a garage laundry room. But it's very functional.

This is one of Martha Stewart's laundry rooms. I like her tile floors. It's the same tile that I used in my Master Bathroom.

I love the floor in this laundry room.

This is another favorite of mine.

I love, love, love the old laundry sinks like this one. I like how this one sits on a cabinet and I love the tile backsplash.

This is a pretty farm sink in a laundry room.

This is a good "stain" spot. I like the laminate with the stain removal ideas.

A laundry room is not a living room. It's suppose to be functional and do the dirty work. But it doesn't have to be a dirty, grubby hole in the wall either. You have to spend a lot of time doing laundry so it should be a pleasant place to be, not the torture chamber that you hate to enter. You want it set up so that it works for you and your family. It should be efficient and functional. What do you do in your laundry room? Do you iron? I don't. I very rarely iron but some people iron EVERYTHING. Do you wash your dogs in the laundry room sink? If you have small dogs, the laundry sink is easier on your back. Do you handwash your stockings and delicates? I don't wear stockings any more and I don't handwash anything (I have a delicate cycle on my washing machine). Do you need multiple laundry baskets and hampers to keep track of everything? With just the two of us, I don't have many laundry baskets to keep track of. Do you like watching TV while doing laundry? I do. I wish I had enough room for a comfy rocker in my laundry room too. What do you need to store in the laundry room? Will your children be doing laundry? (I hope you are teaching them how to take care of their own clothes.) We don't have children. Do you want to have your deep freezer in the laundry room? What kind of stations do you need in a laundry room....an ironing station (with ironing board, iron, starch, etc); a dog grooming and dog dosing station (dog shampoos, flea/tick meds, tummy meds, clippers and drying stand); a gift station (storing gifts, gift wrapping supplies, boxes); a sewing station (sewing machine, supplies, fabric); a cat station (litter box, cat food, cat meds); etc.

All of these are the kinds of questions to ask yourself as you consider your laundry area. This will give you an idea of how much room you need in the laundry room and how you want it set up. When I was house-shopping I kept in mind the size laundry room I wanted and I got it. It makes all the difference! If you are building a home, keep this in mind when you go to plan your home.

But remember, you need to keep it clean, organized, clutter free, picked up, laundry done. If you don't maintain it, then you could have the best laundry room in the world and it still look like a cyclone hit it.